Mike docked and exited the ship, walking slowly up to the restaurant level and found a place that served decent sandwiches and coffee. He looked out over the concourse and sighed. It had been a quiet run through Caldari space, a few folks who knew him waving as he went by but no new pilots noticing his call or offer.

But there had been an offer made to him. Some group called The Agency had a series of ‘this and that’ tasks that he could easily do on the fly while making the rounds in the Bus. The pay was not the best but a bit of pocket change would be welcome and it broke up the day to take a side field trip.

Which brought him to the latest lesson. Finding the roads not taken. Sometimes you wanted to be with a group and he wished like hell more rookies paid attention but when it came to exploration it was nice to have a system to yourself. Even the rookies sometimes asked how to find unmined belts and he had made a lesson just for them of how to use Dotlan and specifically how to find the lesser trafficked areas using stats like ship kills, npc kills and jumps. How to look at a map and find the dead-ends where there was less through traffic and a better chance of finding things others had not come looking for. Islands and the implications of them, both hi and low.

He sighed and stirred his coffee idly. Casual, that was what he was in spite of the time he put in. There were no demands for how long or when he flew save those of his own whims. No clock to punch or minimum isk to earn just drop into the ship and go. He eyes the news and sat up, seeing the potential for the opposite type of lifestyle.

A refinery that is deployed at the correct spot beside a moon can fit and online a special moon drilling service module. Only one structure can mine each moon at a time.

The owners will then setup the fracking operation, with larger chunks taking longer time to be drilled from the moon.

The moon drilling module begins blasting a chunk of the moon away from its surface and dragging it towards the structure. This process takes between one and several weeks depending on the choices made by the structure owner. Observers can watch the chunk move through space as a way of estimating when it will reach the Refinery.

Once the chunk of moon rock has completed its journey into space, the Refinery can use its drill module to detonate the chunk into a minable asteroid field. The exact time of the detonation is controlled by the owners of the Refinery within limits. If the chunk is left unattended long enough it will disintegrate into the asteroid field on its own.

The new asteroid field that appears with the explosion of the chunk will contain new types of valuable ores that will yield moon minerals when reprocessed. The composition of the field will depend on the composition of moon materials available in the moon. The field will generally remain far enough away from the Refinery structure that you won’t be able to effectively mine it from docking range but close enough for a pilot controlling the Refinery to be able to cover the friendly miners and/or attack uninvited guests.

Once the chunk has exploded, the drilling module can begin fracturing a new part of the moon to start the process again.

Timing, order, sequences to be scheduled and followed. Mike shuddered. Not for him but he followed up on the conversations surrounding it, both support and outcries of anger. (although he knew they could announce almost anything and get the same mix) The usual suspects spoke on the matter and in the end? Mike saw it is a good step forward. More pilots would be needed, not just a single supervisor. More opportunity to make a play for a steal or find a lot of juicy targets in a single spot.

<memo to self, Spectre fleet contacts need to be updated, might be some fun, ahead>

Mike chuckled at the note and finished his coffee. Uitra and the second pass through Caldari space then on to Gallente and a stop at home. He had a spring in his step thinking of seeing family and friends again.

***********************************************************

Lessons

cry all you want, the mining shift looks like a decent change.

The Agency event is meh, for now, but I have some ideas burbling in the back of my head about it.

3 Responses to Casual

This looks like a good change, a little late, but better than never. I didnt catch the part how long this exploded belts last, hope ccp puts only a small window for mining and not the lasy remains in space till the next moon part explosion.
The only downside to me is the current holders will milk moons till the very last second, EVE stagnates like never befor. Winter can’t come fast enough.

I think you are correct, it’s easy enough to be “serious” and invested in the game even while just buying game time with USD — but none of us buying monthly plex with ISK (and therefore needing to earn some calculated amount per day) can really be considered casual. I mostly follow my own whims too, but *must* work my space job to support my play style.

“he knew they could announce almost anything and get the same mix” truer words never spoken haha

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